Voice store and forward messaging systems which are available in the art such as, for example, a ROLM PhoneMail voice store and forward messaging system manufactured by ROLM Systems of Santa Clara, Calif., record incoming telephone messages for playback to a system user at a later time. A typical such telephone message comprises a human voice talking continuously at a moderate volume.
In general, a message can be arbitrarily long and it is comprised of voice-related portions, periods of silence, and white noise. Occasionally, however, a message contains unexpectedly loud sounds. One example of such a loud sound is the loud sound that sometimes results when a calling party sets down a handset at the end of a call. This loud sound, along with miscellaneous telephony noises such as disconnect signals, is known as a "hang-up clunk."
Presently available voice store and forward messaging systems are deficient in relation to the methods they utilize in determining playback volume for messages. For example, some presently available systems analyze messages to determine playback volume but provide playback volumes which are too high. This causes a problem for messages which contain loud sounds because the resulting large playback volume of loud sounds can be discomforting or harmful to a listener's ear. Other presently available systems analyze messages to determine playback volume but provide playback volumes which are too low. This causes a problem in that voice-related portions of some messages may become unintelligible when the messages are played back. Lastly, still other presently available systems do not analyze messages to determine playback volume and merely play back the message at the same volume it had when it was received. This causes a problem for messages which contain loud sounds because the playback volume of such loud sounds can be discomforting or harmful to a listener's ear and this causes a problem for messages which have a low volume because the playback volume is too low for suitably intelligible sound.
As a result of the above-described problems concerning messaging systems which are presently available in the prior art, there is a need for method and apparatus for use in conjunction with voice messaging systems for determining playback volume of a message so that a good representation is provided for a voice-related portion of the message and the playback volume of a loud sound is reduced.